Birthday Party Requests

This year, for my birthday party, I'm going to send an email that says, "Instead of buying me gifts this year, I ask that you donate to this charity of my choosing." Then I'll include a link and we'll track how much money I raise. The thing is, I don't normally have birthday parties, and no one every buys me gifts. So, it's a bit odd to ask for something in lieu of something that you would never get in the first place. I should raise no money, but I'm going to give it a shot anyway, it'll be easier to stack rank my friends.